It was a surprise being held in for a long while, but Anime Weekend Atlanta has finally opened up to showcasing indies this year and Elemensional Rift had the honor of being part of the first year of indie showcasing. For those not familiar with AWA, it is the largest anime focused convention in the Southeast of USA. To be part of such large, long running conventions is always a great boost to be a part of.
This convention was also unique in it revealing the eighth and final character of the core roster, ‘Zieque. ‘Zieque’s speedy antics and ability to set up chain reactions at the cost of health per (most) attacks was something that made him stand out as a real point of intrigue. In addition, with being the god of electricity, many of his attacks would also travel as fast as lightning. Many quickly realized that ‘Zieque was a character of high risks with high rewards. For those who could tame his unrivaled speed and accepted the expensive cost of his attacks, they quickly learned he had much to those willing to invest in him. During AWA, one player even managed to overcome the monumental challenge of conquering the survival mode with ‘Zieque.
With a big crowd at a big convention, Elemensional Rift was certainly eager to host another tournament. It was quite the adventure and the grand finals even was hosted on the grand stage. There was quite a lot of emotion going through the tournament and the grand finals was quite the nail biter. The end of the battle came down to an attempted feint by ‘Ziechu to lure out Miru’s tsunami that has a long recovery period, however Miru did not take the bait and ended up getting the opportunity to catch ‘Ziechu instead.
Even looking through the stats after the convention, it showed that AWA’s audience is quite a bit different from all of the other shows. Some of the interesting stats of note are:
- By far the most play sessions of the year (nearing the combination of Momo Con and SFGE).
- ‘Zieque’s debut was met with such warm reception that he had the single highest usage at any event for any character (and more play sessions than the total number of free play sessions for all of SFGE).
- Otagz moved into the top 5 for usage for the first time since his debut.
- The two characters usually leading the usage charts, Crispy B. and Neon, were surprisingly lower than usual. Neither character even broke the top 5 in usage.
- Miroi continues to maintain the highest win rate at conventions as his great bulk is quite favorable for a first play session experience.
- Inversely, Psyren had the lowest win rate as his high learning curve makes him a bit more challenging for a first play session at a convention.
- Of the top 3 fighters used (‘Zieque, Nekuen, and Selphieroth), Selphieroth maintained the highest win rate.
